Embodiments of inventive concepts relate to a semiconductor device, and more particularly, relate to a method of designing a layout of a semiconductor device by using an adaptive metal fill.
In addition, the embodiments of inventive concepts relate to a computer program performing an adaptive metal fill and a semiconductor device manufactured by the computer program.
In general, a semiconductor chip may include cells (e.g., transistors) and may include interconnections electrically connecting the cells for the purpose of implementing logic that performs a specific function. The interconnections may be placed over a plurality of layers. In particular, since high integration of a semiconductor chip make manually placing cells and interconnections difficult or impossible, a layout design tool is widely used.
A metal density of interconnections is very important upon placing interconnections in the plurality of layers. For example, if the metal density is not uniform over layers and/or the metal density is out of a range intended by a semiconductor manufacturer, distortion may occur in the process of stacking layers, thereby causing a change in timing of a signal or the like and/or having an influence on semiconductor manufacturing yield. Therefore, a method of inserting a dummy metal is mainly used to make the metal density uniform over layers.
However, as microfabrication technologies develop, even though a metal fill is performed by using a dummy pattern forming rule stored in an existing library, implementing the desired metal density is difficult or impossible. If the desired metal density is not implemented, in the worst case, there may be a requirement to again design a layout, thereby causing an increase in costs and time for development. Therefore, there is a desire for a method of implementing an effective metal fill by using the layout design tool.